U.S. shutdown leaves Canada in the dark on major exports

Exports to the U.S. represented nearly 73 per cent of Canada’s goods shipments abroad in August, prior to the shutdown. Photo by GEOFF ROBINS/AFP via Getty Images/Postmedia files

Canada’s statistics agency says it hasn’t received any data on United States imports of Canadian goods for September, raising the possibility that it won’t be able to proceed with a scheduled release of trade figures on Nov 4.

Government agencies collaborate to share information on the shipment of goods across borders. But when the U.S. government began a partial shutdown on Oct. 1, “no data on Canada’s exports to the United States for September 2025 had been received,” Cristobal D’Alessio, a spokesperson for Statistics Canada , said by email.

Without those inputs, the agency won’t be able to calculat